One of the most enjoyable and exciting things about welcoming the next school year is planning out student schedules. Students meet with their guidance counselors and decide on which courses they would like to take in the upcoming school year. These courses may either be graduation requirements or beneficial prerequisites for the students’ intended major(s) in college.

During the week of January , students were called down to the Guidance Office to decide on next year’s courses and finalize their schedules. New and interesting additions were recently made to the available course list, expanding the scope of study at Wayne Hills.

Mr. Keogh, guidance counselor and varsity tennis coach, gladly informed us of what the new year has in store for both the student and teacher body.

“There are certainly new courses for this upcoming fall that have many students intrigued,” he tells us. “The new courses include Mobile Applications, Biotechnology, 20th Century American Pop Culture, and a full year course for AP Economics.”

Mobile Applications, one of the more popular topics of discussion amongst the students, deals with teaching students on how to program applications for their iPhones. Neil Ascione, already a teacher here at hills for Honors Java, AP Computer Science A, and several other computer related courses, is enthusiastic about teaching this new course.

“I’m very excited…I don’t know how difficult it will be yet, but you can approach it at many levels. We are going to be using Swift, a new programming language,” said Ascione.

Biotechnology, another new cutting-edge course, will be taught by Amanda Kerns. This course will deal with infusing biology and technology together and will include a deeper study of DNA, RNA, and genetics.

20th Century American Pop Culture, a full year course in world studies, will be taught by Taylor Berkowitz, who is happy to bring a new elective to Wayne Hills.

“I’m actually really looking forward to this, it’s something I’ve proposed a while ago and it’s taken years to get approved. It’s a great way to look at American society and how we have changed, and what things like fashion, food, and entertainment say about us as people at different points in history,” Berkowitz said.

Berkowitz also notes that the class will be discussion and project-based, with students analyzing how culture has evolved over time.

Finally, the half year Economics course will be obliterated and replaced by AP Economics. According to Bruce Keogh, WH Guidance Counselor, tried to run this course for the current school year, but could not find a teacher.